WN raises fares 7.5% + $4 as tax & fee lapse (was: Why is WN still charging tax?)
 

The failure of Congress to pass a FAA reauthorization by midnight means that airlines are supposed to stop collecting federal taxes in the interim. Other airlines (i.e. CO) have already eliminated these taxes. Why is WN still collecting them?

Different time zone?

Based on pst

Why Pacific time (and PST, rather than PDT at that)? Surely midnight Eastern time is what counts, seeing as we're talking about the goings-on in Washington, D.C. here.

If you had the slightest idea SWA IT would be on top of this...watch out for men headed your direction and carrying straitjackets.

Those mofos raised the fares to make up for the taxes.

Example: $65 fare, should be $75 after full taxes
Now it's a $68 fare and comes out to $75 after partial taxes

Haha. Looks like all the airlines are doing this. Wonder if they will lower their prices once the tax is back?

I'm seeing "oops the fare has changed" messages on all my open browser windows from before 3am EST.

My bad, Southwest DID raise the base fare by $4 and moved all the taxes on the 2nd page of checkout (fare breakdown) from the tax/fee column over to the airfare column.

I don't see any advantage in booking today than later. Southwest should do the proper thing and refund passengers who ticket or re-fare today.

One thing to note is that the FAQs on another site say that taxes are based on the day you fly not buy. If taxes are put back in place for , say, a Sept or Oct flight booked today, does the airline have to pay actual taxes for you? Maybe that's why some are charging higher fares now??

I know how you feel. I actually have to pay$1.20 more for the tickets i had saved online. Oh how they suck.

It looks like the only honest airline out there is Virgin America! And United! And JetBlue! And Alaska! And Delta! And Frontier!

:td: to WN.

CO hasn't (yet?) pulled that stunt, at least from what I've seen. For example, from IAH/HOU-SAT, where CO and WN were matching $59 base fares, CO's all-in price is now $60.38 (down from the $68.20 all-in fare earlier in the week I had purchased, while the taxes were still being collected), whereas WN is now charging $68.50 all-in, thanks to hiking the the base fare from $59 to $63 following the tax "holiday."

No kidding.

F9 actually hasn't raised fares (and neither has United on the particular route I'm looking at) so Southwest is out of line with other carriers, whose tickets are actually cheaper now that the excise tax and $3.70 departure tax are gone :D

And Frontier!

So they did raise fares.

I sure can understand why they did it (remember, they are run by an accountant now), but I certainly don't like it. I guess that's why I just spent $1,000 with AS on tickets for the next few weeks. ;) Hawaii and Anchorage, here I come (plus the boring PDX/SEA-California runs).

Gary Leff predicted this, but I still find it quite distressing that Southwest took the low road. I doubt the old Southwest would have done this.

Furthermore, consider the great low-cost* publicity that will accrue to those airlines who hold the line on prices compared to those who increase prices opportunistically. Southwest employees should be hanging their heads in shame today.

Low-cost because this situation is unlikely to last more than a day or two. Carriers run promotional sales with small discounts all the time, and this could have been one of the most successful such sales PR-wise. Morons.